Once headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, which grew fat on the fur trade in the early 1800s, Winnipeg is now the distribution center for Canada's grain industry. Manitoba farms grow more sunflower seed and beans than any other province and produce the second-largest flaxseed crop. But agricultural wealth comes at a price: Almost all the indigenous tallgrass prairie has disappeared, and efforts are under way to preserve remaining flora and fauna.

Lumbering and mining of nickel, copper, and zinc buttress northern Manitoba, along with production of hydroelectric power—a third of which is exported to Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the United States. In the southwest, one potash reserve offers 120 million minable metric tons. Sparkling glacial lakes—100,000 of them—are alive with 80 fish species, but the yearly catch of summer tourists earns more cash than the take of fish.